Neutral or warm? Which do you prefer?

Yes, audio is subjective and certainly no product is 100% transparent as we all know. So we all spend time using words like bright, forward, warm, fast, slow etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. With that said we need a word that means that the product has the least amount of all those noticeable attributes.

If not neutral than what?

Transparent?

Impartial?

Indifferent?

Unbiased?

Bland?

Uncolored?

Natural?

Evenhanded?

Unaffiliated?

To answer your question first, "better" is whatever is best for that individual.

There are no absolutes in this hobby. If there was then the near endless debates about amp types, speaker types, cartridge types, cable types etc, would not need to exist OR there would be near universal answers.

Now if you are asking if more members prefer a system that they know is "colored" but prefer it anyway or do they prefer a system that sounds as "neutral" as possible to them, that's a horse of a different color.

For myself, I strive to reproduce the music as close to possible as to what I hear in real life. Of course that does not keep me from telling someone I prefer product "X" because it has a "warmer" sound however in that case "warmer" to me would be a more natural sound than "leaner, colder" product "Y" in that particular case.

In the end it's all about whatever gets you feeling as good (if possible) as the original live music would have.

"I have nothing against folks that enjoy a tilted up high frequency response, but I do wish they would stop referring to it as 'neutral' sounding. Neutral gear should sound neither rolled off nor lit up, it should just sound relaxed and natural."

I totally agree but if lots of people are using "neutral" to describe speakers with a tilted up frequency responce than what word are they they using to describe speakers that do the least amount of tonal shifts either up or down?

I agree. So you vote that we stay with the word "neutral" and do our best to define the word whenever we use it?

"What is wrong with a system being balanced or unbalanced ?
If it is unbalanced, that can mean either upward or downward."

I agree, the word balanced is less open to interpertation.

So BALANCED is added to the list of words to be used insted of neutral.

I really don't like saying that I want my music to sound as though it is live, because like others have mentioned, live isn't always a good thing. In fact, most live shows sound like cr@p.

I think it might be better if we were to stay with lifelike sound vs live sound. The point being that most recordings are not live in the sense that the venue is having an impact on what is being recorded and thus can adversly effect the sound quality.

One of the best recordings I have ever heard of a solo saxaphone was done on the middle landing of a ceramic tiled subway stairs entrance.